Signor Buttiglione congratulated Franco Frattini, the Foreign Minister, on his nomination as EU Justice Commissioner, the job for which Signor Buttiglione had been nominated by Silvio Berlusconi, the Prime Minister.

But he went on: “I hope his hearings go well and that nobody asks him if he is a Freemason. If they do they will only be repeating the same injustice that was done to me.”

Signor Frattini, who has been Foreign Minister since November 2002, yesterday held talks in Brussels with José Manuel Durão Barroso, the new European Commission President, ahead of confirmation hearings at the European Parliament next Monday and Tuesday. Senhor Barroso hopes his entire Commission will be confirmed next Thursday by Euro MPs, enabling it to take office the following Monday.

Freemasonry, which was banned under Mussolini, flourished under the Christian Democrats in postwar Italy, and remains legal. But it is still viewed with suspicion by the Vatican and the Roman Catholic Church.

It has been a highly sensitive issue in Italy since 1981, when a secret and illegal right-wing Masonic lodge known as P2 — Propaganda Due — was broken up amid public scandal.

Nearly a thousand members of P2 were named, including senior figures in business, politics, banking, journalism, the intelligence services and the military. The scandal brought down the Christian Democrat-led Government of Arnaldo Forlani, which had tried to keep the details secret.

Signor Frattini and Signor Berlusconi declined to comment on Signor Buttiglione’s outburst. Lapo Pistelli, an Italian left-wing Euro MP, said that it was a “poisoned dart. I have no idea if Frattini is a Mason or not, but I have no doubt that, unlike Buttiglione, he will appear at his hearing fully prepared and there will be no unpleasant surprises.”

However, Mario Borghezio, a Northern League Euro MP, said that he hoped Signor Frattini was “independent of the occult powers which control Europe”.

Signor Frattini, 47, a parliamentary deputy for Signor Berlusconi’s Forza Italia Party since 1996 and former head of the parliamentary commission overseeing the intelligence services, is widely admired for his competence and equanimity.

Last night Signor Berlusconi held a meeting of his Centre Right coalition to discuss the nomination of Gianfranco Fini, the “post Fascist” Deputy Prime Minister, as the new Foreign Minister. Signor Buttiglione, far from returning to relative obscurity as Italy’s Minister for European Affairs since his rejection by Euro MPs, has defiantly maintained a high profile through public meetings and interviews, in which he has lambasted the “totalitarianism” of an “over secularised and politically correct Europe”.

Last weekend he began a campaign for a return to “traditional religious values” in public life, and said that thousands of people all over Europe had offered support for his campaign to inject “Christian family values” into politics.

A survey this week showed that 61 per cent of Italians were against gay marriage.

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